


Nico needs him

by Fangirl_Forever



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Cute Nico, Embarrassed Nico, I Don't Even Know, I Will Go Down With This Ship, Jason is a Dork, Light Angst, Nico Feels, One Shot, Past Jason Grace/Piper McLean, Romantic Fluff, Why Did I Write This?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-14
Updated: 2017-05-14
Packaged: 2018-10-31 17:14:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10903863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fangirl_Forever/pseuds/Fangirl_Forever
Summary: Nico gets into a bit of trouble and goes to Jason for help. This leads to confessions from both of them and a happy ending. Not "that" kind of happy ending.*I always picture Nico as having thick hair, so from my own experiences of needing help to get it untangled, this was born.





	Nico needs him

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written and posted to Tumblr in 2015, before Solangelo became canon so nobody shoot me, please.  
> *I don't own these characters.

Jason couldn’t wait to take a shower and wash off the sweat and grime from his quest with Nico. He stood before Chiron with Nico by his side and hurriedly, impatiently answered all his questions until finally Chiron dismissed them. Without speaking to anyone else, Jason turned and sprinted for his cabin. Inside he speed-walked through his cabin to his bathroom, stripping his clothes off along the way. He jumped straight into the shower and spent half an hour repeatedly washing every inch of himself.

Only when his skin started to feel raw did he stop and turn off the water. He had just wrapped a towel around his waist when he heard muffled curses coming from the other side of the bathroom door. He pulled his robe off the hook next to the shower and pulled it on, belting it closed before opening the door. At first he didn’t see anyone.

And then Nico stepped out of the shadows, wearing a black beanie on his head, his hair completely hidden. He wasn’t looking at Jason, his eyes staring intently at the floor, but Jason could see he was blushing.

“What is it, Nico?” Jason asked, stepping over to him.

Nico’s blush grew brighter and he ducked his head down further. “I need your help,” he said, obviously embarrassed.

Jason blinked, surprised. It wasn’t like Nico to ask for help so easily. “Sure, anything, Neeks, you know that.” He put his hand on Nico’s shoulder to reassure him and allowed himself a little delight when Nico didn’t flinch away.

Nico took a deep breath, pulled the beanie off his head, and pointed to his head wordlessly. His hair was still wet. And Jason realized looking at it that it was very tangled. Nico had grown it out long enough to put in a ponytail but now it was so knotted that it didn’t even hang down to his shoulders.

“Oh wow, Nico. Ok, this is going to take some extra help,” Jason said, circling Nico to study his hair from all angles. Nico still wouldn’t look at him. “It’s going to take a lot of conditioner but I think I can get it fixed. Wait here, ok?” Nico nodded silently.

Jason grabbed a pair of jeans and a shirt from his dresser and quickly changed in the bathroom. Nico had not moved when he came out and he paused to squeeze Nico’s shoulder. Finally, Nico looked up at him.

Jason felt his heart melt. Nico’s eyes were watery and red like he had been crying but was holding back tears now and Jason just wanted to grab him and hold him tight. His arms started to move before he could stop them and the next thing he knew, he was pulling Nico into them and against his chest. He rested his chin on top of Nico’s head, nuzzling his hair. Nico didn’t try to get away but he didn’t relax either. He kept his hands shoved into his pockets, his fists clenched. But he did allow himself one small comfort. He pressed his face into Jason’s chest, eagerly breathing in the fresh, clean scent that was Jason.

Nico really shouldn’t like the way Jason smelled but he couldn’t help it. He smelled like the sky, fresh and free. Which made sense considering he could actually fly. Nico thought he himself probably smelled like death. That thought sobered him up quickly and he pulled away from Jason after a couple of minutes. He kept his head down and didn’t catch Jason’s concerned and slightly hurt expression.

“Thanks,” Nico mumbled, staring at his scuffed boots.

Jason nodded and turned to go, pausing to look over his shoulder before he went out the door. “Make yourself comfortable. I don’t have any chairs or anything so you can sit on my bed,” he said. He opened his mouth to say more but when Nico still didn’t look at him he closed his mouth and left.  
As soon as the door shut, Nico groaned and threw himself on the bed, pulling Jason’s pillow over his face. He was so embarrassed! He was Hades’ son, the Ghost King, and he could command the dead! But he couldn’t manage his own hair. It was humiliating. But he trusted Jason to keep another secret for him, and he actually liked his hair so cutting it off just wasn’t an option. Nico sat up, dropping the pillow to his lap, and tried to run his fingers through his hair again.

Only to find that he still couldn’t get them through the tangled mess his hair had become. He angrily started yanking at his hair, trying to unknot it somehow, ignoring the sharp pains every tug sent through his scalp. He was still yanking when Jason came back, holding a small plastic bag in one hand. Nico hurriedly dropped his hands and ducked his head.

Jason smiled as he walked over to the bed, hoping Nico would look up at him. When the smaller boy didn’t Jason tried not to take it personally. He could tell by the blush on Nico’s face he was embarrassed. Jason didn’t want to make it worse.

“I’ve got some conditioner that’s supposed to help,” Jason said, pulling a bottle out of the bag for Nico to see. Nico just shrugged and kept his gaze on the floor. Jason held in a sigh and put the bottle back in the bag with the other products he had. He held his hand out to Nico, wanting him to reach out to Jason on his own. “Come on. I can do your hair in the bathroom sink and then you can rinse off in the shower.”

Nico looked up at him then. Blue eyes met brown and shared gazes for a moment. And then, to Jason’s disappointment, the moment ended and Nico looked back down at the floor. But Jason’s disappointment was replaced with an unfamiliar giddiness when Nico placed his hand in Jason’s.  
Jason led him into the bathroom and regretfully let go of Nico’s hand. He pulled a towel off the bathroom shelf and folded it over edge of the sink. 

“You might wanna take your shirt off, otherwise it’s likely to get wet,” Jason said, pulling the bottles out of the bag. He lined them up on the side of the sink, averting his eyes so he wouldn’t make Nico nervous as Nico pulled his shirt off.

He turned the water on, watching it swirl down the sink drain as he waited for it to warm up a bit. “Piper mentioned something about using cold water, as heat can damage hair so this is going to be cool, but not cold,” Jason explained as he tested the water with his wrist. Satisfied with the temperature he stepped away from the sink and finally looked at Nico. And he felt his breath catch in his chest. 

He had never realized how much Nico had grown in the few years since the war. Still lean and pale, he was now muscled, no longer sickly thin, and his skin looked more like porcelain rather than deathly white. He had also had a growth spurt, now coming up to Jason’s chin. Jason had a thought that Nico would fit just right against his chest and quickly banished that thought away. 

Nico frowned at him, catching the way Jason was staring at him. “Jason? Can I dunk my head now?” he asked, crossing his arms over his chest self consciously. 

Jason came back to reality and nodded his head. He shut his eyes but the sight of Nico’s pale skin wouldn’t leave his mind. His eyes snapped open when he heard Nico gasp softly. Nico was bent over the sink with his head slowly lowering under the running water.

When his entire head was wet, he turned his head to look at Jason with one eye, the other covered by his wet hair. Jason met his gaze and held it for a long, tense moment. And then Nico ended it by speaking, gasping out a soft, breathy “Jason” before he blushed bright red and turn his face away from Jason.

Jason picked up the conditioner and squirted a generous amount into his hand. He rubbed his hands together before he started working on Nico’s hair. As he started he was worried Nico might have to cut his hair after all. But after several minutes of Jason rubbing the conditioner into the knotted mess and gently running his fingers through Nico’s hair, he started making progress.

Jason bit his lip as he worked, keeping quiet except for occasionally asking if Nico was alright. Each time Nico held his thumb up. Jason found his mind wandering to places he knew it didn’t need to go. He shouldn’t have had feelings for Nico. He had promised himself he would just be a friend, a friend Nico desperately needed. Nothing more. But trying to convince himself it was for the best wasn’t easy.  
Trying to distract himself, and maybe remind himself why anything beyond friendship with Nico was impossible, he cleared his throat and spoke. “How are things with Will?” he asked, raising his voice to be heard over the running water. He thought he had made a mistake when he felt Nico tense but then he relaxed a second later and surprised Jason by answering.

“He’s alright,” Nico replied, his voice shaky. He didn’t want to admit it but feeling Jason gently caring for his hair felt amazing and was relaxing him in a way nothing else ever had. He didn’t want to talk about anything, he just wanted to close his eyes and enjoy the feeling of Jason massaging his head.  
Jason took a deep breath and closed his eyes. As he rinsed out Nico’s hair and applied more conditioner, he started speaking again. 

“I think I like you, Nico. In a way I probably shouldn’t. I promised to be your friend, nothing more. It wouldn’t be right for me to suddenly have a feelings for you, especially not when you’ve just become comfortable with yourself. And found someone else to like,” Jason added bitterly.

He was careful to keep his voice low as he confessed, not wanting Nico to hear any of it. By the time Nico’s hair was completely untangled and he could run his hand through it easily, Jason had listed all the reasons why he thought Nico was cute and how much he loved his hair. “It wouldn’t be hard to fall for you, Nico,” Jason said, blinking back his own tears.

Jason swallowed heavily and straightened, grabbing another towel off the shelf. He dried his hands and then turned off the water. “Lift your head slowly and I’ll wrap a towel around it,” he instructed.  
Nico did as he was told and as soon as the towel was around his hair he brushed past Jason to get out of the bathroom, needing room to breath. He stood in the middle of the room, drying his hair, thinking about what he had heard Jason saying. When his hair was dry enough he dropped the towel on Jason’s bed and hugged himself, looking at the floor, unsure what to do next.

Jason came up behind him and held out Nico’s shirt. Nico lifted his eyes briefly and took his shirt from Jason’s hand. He pulled it on and ran his fingers through his hair. Jason held out the plastic bag full of more hair products. Nico took it hesitantly. “What’s all this?” he asked.

Jason shrugged. “Piper said that was a bunch of different hair care stuff, sample sizes mostly, that you could try for your hair. I didn’t understand most of what she said but I explained the situation to her and she gathered all this up for you.”

Nico’s eyes finally lifted to meet Jason’s then. “You told her?” he asked, glaring at Jason.

Jason held his hands up, smiling reassuringly. “Of course not, Nico. I just said it was for a friend, that’s it,” he explained.

Nico couldn’t stop what came out of his mouth next and wasn’t sure he wanted to. “You know children of Aphrodite know when a person has feelings for someone.”

Jason’s eyes widened and his cheeks turned pink, the first time Nico had ever seen any indication that Jason could blush. Jason opened his mouth but it took several tries before he managed to speak. “What?” he said, his voice breaking slightly.

Nico could see the panic in Jason’s eyes and stepped closer to him, holding Jason’s gaze. He stopped when he was only an inch away from Jason, his head tilted so he could look up at Jason. “I heard everything,” he said softly. He hesitantly took Jason’s hands into his.

“Nico-” Jason managed to get out before he was cut off by Nico’s lips. It was a chaste kiss and was over after only a few seconds, but it was enough to make Nico turn bright red again. Jason stared down at him with his mouth open, his mind taking time to catch up to what had just happened.

“I like you, too, Jason,” Nico whispered. He smiled nervously, waiting for Jason to respond.  
Jason smiled back at him and lifted one of his hands to Nico’s cheek. His thumb brushed over Nico’s skin and Nico leaned his head into Jason’s hand. They shared a quiet moment just smiling at each other and enjoying each other’s presence. But Jason just had to know something.

“What about Will?” he asked, not letting the flash of jealousy show.

Nico frowned. “What about him?”

Jason ducked his head. “You two went out last week. You looked like you had fun,” he mumbled.

Nico chuckled. “Oh, that. Yeah we went out. And yeah I guess I had fun. But there’s nothing there but friendship,” he explained. Jason lifted his head and smiled again, happier than he should have been to hear that. But then Nico frowned and Jason felt his heart drop.

“Nico?” Jason cleared his throat, not liking how high and shaky his voice sounded.

Nico turned his head, looking off to the side rather than at Jason. “What about Piper?”

Jason’s grown matched Nico’s now. “What about her?”

“How is she gonna feel about ….. This? Us?” Nico asked, his voice so low Jason barely heard him.

“Nico, look at me please,” Jason said. He waited till Nico lifted his head and met his gaze before explaining. “We broke up over a month ago, Nico. It was mutual, it ended on good terms. There are no hard feelings between us and we’re still friends.”

That was enough to comfort Nico and he smiled again. He crossed that last inch and pressed himself against Jason, his head fitting right up under Jason’s chin the way Jason had imagined it would. They wrapped their arms around each other. Jason kissed the top of Nico’s head and nuzzled his hair.

“Jason?” Nico’s voice was muffled against Jason’s shirt but Jason heard him still.

“Yeah, Nico?”

There was a thirty second silence before, Nico asked, “Could you do my hair again another time?”

Jason chuckled and nodded. “Of course, Nico.” He ran his fingers through Nico’s hair and Nico sighed, pushing his head up into Jason’s hands.

Eventually, they moved to Jason’s bed, laying side by side facing each other. Nico snuggled against Jason’s chest and Jason kept playing with Nico’s hair until they both fell asleep and took a long nap together. And when they woke hours later, they were both happily surprised to see neither had had any nightmares or bad dreams. And even more surprised to find that they had both dreamed about their possible future together.


End file.
